Hey Ike,how ya doing .
I just happend in here today and saw your post.
Japanese folklore is very dark in a lot of ways.
You should get those dark tales of Japan DVDs.
Creepy stuff.

The Japanese basically grow up with these tales from childhood.

As for your list.Well yokai is a broad term for all otherworldly demons,more or less.
So a kappa is a yokai.
Kappa is the most famous of the yokai .
He is said to be dangerous during obon,and to never swim in ponds rivers or oceans during obon.The
kappa will take you if you do.
There is a japanese horror movie in the works right now based on the kappa.

The kitsune ,to me is more obscure,for me anyway.I just think fox .But there is a wolfman yokai if
memory serves

The yama yokai are very famous and dangerous .Never walk the mountians at night alone.
Mount Fuji is famous for suicides you know.They say the yama demon lures you there for
this reason.

The Tanuki is very amusing however.He isn't quite a yokai though,but he is supernatural.

My personal experiences were with a spider entity in Meijiro Tokyo ,a snake creature attached to a haunted house in Ebisu,and then a couple of creepy
ghosts.
Then the Abe No Seimei bridge in Kyoto has yokai,but I only felt them,and
I had some odd experiences at the castle in kyoto many years ago as well.

Japanese demons seem to like to live up to their reputations as far as I can see.
This was my only experience with a spirit that actually physically struck me.I also saw an orb in plain sight there.
Very old spirits,and a lot of them.
I want to go to vietnam next year,and I suspect its similiar in many ways.
Lots of ghosts.

I once had a wonderful encounter/vision of a helpful kitsune ( myobu or byakko as they are sometimes called) after making a spontaneous prayer to Inari, actually. I've felt her with me on a couple of subsequent occasions as well. I don't have a really good explanation, but I guess that is the way of meaningful spiritual experiences everywhere. I noticed that there were some similar stories to mine in the book The Fox and The Jewel by Karen Smyers( which is really good if you can find a copy), and I guess in some ways these stories are not too dissimilar to some Christian accounts of guardian angels as well. Perhaps they look like foxes to those who feel more attuned to Inari, and like something else to those who favor another deity.

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